The growth in popularity of the Internet and other computer networks has fueled not only an increasing availability, but an increasing appetite among consumers for digital information. Consumers typically seek access to this information using an access device, such a computer, to communicate with an online information retrieval system. The information retrieval system typically includes a graphical user interface for entering and submitting requests for information, known as queries, to a remote search engine. The search engine identifies relevant information, typically in the form of documents, and returns a results list to
One problem that the present inventor recognized in conventional information retrieval systems concerns users seeking information in fields where they have very little if any knowledge or vocabulary. In this context, these beginning or intermediate users typically enter one or more overly broad searches to glean some insights into a subject area and then enter additional more targeted searches as they iteratively converge on their desired information. Unfortunately, executing these overly broad and the more narrow searches consumes significantly more system resources in terms of search engine capacity and bandwidth in reporting large result sets than necessary.
Moreover, this convergence approach is not successful for all users. Some unknowingly end up jumping between subject areas, become contextually lost, and never converging to the desired information. Often, this means that they consumed significant system resources, and left unsatisfied.
Conventional techniques for handling large numbers of queries generally entail adding search engine capacity. However, adding capacity is not only expensive, but ignores the issue of inefficient usage of the system. To address the inefficiency of overly broad queries, some systems screen queries and warn when large results sets are likely. Users are then either encouraged or forced to define a more narrow query. However, this ignores the fact that the many users lack the subject-matter expertise they need to define effective narrower queries and will likely execute even more queries to find their desired information, if at all.
Accordingly, the inventor has identified a need to further improve how information retrieval systems handle overly broad queries.